Presence of Absence
by Kage NoTenshi
Summary: Yami can't really die so what will happen to him... poem is attachted for all those who asked as ch. 2
1. Presence of Absence

This was originally a poem, but my not-quite-Yami refused to let me post this, since she doesn't like poetry. So I rewrote it in narrative form. Basically, I figured Yami can't stay around forever, but he can't really die, right? So what might happen? And Yu-Gi-Oh will belong to me once Esper Roba gets all the Sennen items. Never.

Note: This is non-yaoi. I understand that all Yamis and Hikaris have bonds, but they are way too blended to be able to go past friendship in my opinion. (This goes for Yume Wo Unison too, as with all my other fics, but I forgot to say it then. I tend to disapprove of shounen/shoujo-ai in general.)

The Presence of Absence

It was a nice day to say the least. The sun was bright, sharing the sky amicably with several fluffy white clouds. Here and there, flowers strained their heads upwards from their window boxes as people laughed their cares off. 

But the shadows had gathered elsewhere. They were, though no one could see them, in Yami Yuugi's heart. He felt his soul cracking painfully as he watched his Hikari rummage through a stack of video games. "Hey, Yami, you ever play Tetris? That's a great game. Kind of repetitive, but fun for competition. Ohh, check this out, Final Fantasy…um…Seven. That's a little old. How many are out now?" He counted off on his fingers but gave up. "A lot anyway. Hey, Mario Party 4! I got this a few months ago. Wanna give it a try? I know it's not your average dueling sort of game, but you might like it. Unless you prefer the RPGs, of course. I know I've got a few more Final Fantasies around here…or maybe Grandia…or did I give that to Jounouchi?"

"Yuugi, I need to tell you…"

"Oh, or we could pull out the Gameboys! I've got fifty bazillion different Zelda and Pokemon games."

"Yuugi…"

"Or we could go on the computer and play people over the Net! Starcraft is pretty good for that. I rock at being Protoss, you know."

"Yuugi…"

"Sorry, you're trying to say something, and I just keep chattering away. I'm just so excited to be pulling these out again. You know, they're sort of like old friends."

Yami sighed.

"Sorry. Go ahead."

"No…no, it's okay. This probably isn't a good time."

So of course, at that Yuugi simply _had_ to know what Yami was thinking about. It was Yami who ended up giving in. "Well, Yuugi, nothing lasts forever," he started, unsure of what to say.

"I know that," said Yuugi. "I learned that when my pet canary died when I was three. What are you getting at?"

"Well, see, Yuugi, I don't die."

Yuugi scratched his head. "I never thought about that, but considering how long you've lived, I guess it makes sense. But I still don't understand what you're talking about."

Yami sat down next to his Hikari and picked up the first game on hand, which happened to be Tetris. "Sort of like these games, I guess. You take them out, they serve their purpose, and then you put them away for a while. They come out again later, but not for a very long time, sometimes."

Yuugi cocked his head. "You're being more cryptic than usual today. Are you saying you're a video game?"

"No…"

"Oh! I know, an android!"

"No. What I'm trying to say is that I don't last forever. Not here, at least."

Yuugi looked at him as the words took their time to sink in. "But…you don't die."

"That still doesn't mean I'll always stay."

Yuugi took Tetris and pulled out the N64 system from another box. "Don't talk about that kind of stuff. It's too depressing. Here, I'll teach you how to play this. It's pretty simple."

Yami sighed as he took up a controller. The news could wait for a little while if it really needed to. He ended up putting it off for a full week before he couldn't keep it in any longer. Some things, especially involving requirements he had made himself, just couldn't be shoved away forever. 

Finally he materialized in Yuugi's room one evening, holding the puzzle in his hands. "What's up, Yami?" asked his Hikari.

Yami was silent, studying the designs etched in the surface instead of shooting back his usual answer of, "The majority of the atmosphere and quite a bit of the universe…from our point of view, that is."

Yuugi started to get worried. "What's wrong?"

"Aibou," Yami started softly, "I can't stay much longer."

"Stay here? Do we have to move?"

"No, you're fine. It's just that I was here for a purpose."

"Right. You've done a great job, too, keeping all this power at bay. Everything's peaceful now."

"That's the point. I have nothing more to do."

"Eh? You can stay here."

"Until what? Until you get old and…well, die? Then what? No, Yuugi, I have to go."

"But…"

Yami placed the puzzle gently into Yuugi's hands. "We have a week left before we are ripped apart according to the rules of the puzzle-unless you are willing to let me go on your own."

"But why?"

Yami sighed and sat down on the bed. "When I made the puzzle, I didn't account for how attached I'd get to the people I met in the years to come. See, the way it works is I wake up when the power stirs and rises. I quell the troubles and then go back into the puzzle until it happens all over again. Get it? Um…sort of?"

Yuugi blinked. "I think so. But why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Well, I tried. But we ended up playing Tetris."

"Ohhh…I remember that. You _were_ trying to say something." His expression became serious. "But we only have a week?"

"Less. A week is when my time's up. If you haven't locked me away by then, you'll be destroyed and I'll be forcibly taken back into the puzzle. And in that case, I may not be able to wake next time I'm needed."

He shook his head vaguely. "No…"

"I'm sorry, Yuugi," Yami said softly. "Can I depend on you to go through with this? I'm sure Bakura would be perfectly willing to lock me away if you're not."

Yuugi blinked a few times and looked up. "I will. But can we wait a little longer?" He was glad when Yami agreed, but the pained look in his other's eyes troubled him. Things were noticeably different after that. They had been, but Yuugi hadn't wanted to notice them. He thought that maybe he was just getting good at video games when he could beat his dark half five times in a row at Smash Bros. Melee. He hadn't wanted to believe that Yami was actually losing his famed game touch. That wasn't all, either. He spoke less and less, and often seemed as if he were in pain. 

"Don't worry about it, Aibou," he told Yuugi gently when he asked about it. At the same time, a few tears of pain beaded at the corners of his eyes, and he drew in his breath sharply.

"We have to lock you away, don't we?" asked Yuugi, half in denial. "It'll get worse as time goes on until the week is up."

Yami nodded reluctantly and doubled over, his hand pressed above his heart. 

"Then tell me what I have to do."

Yami smiled, a mixture of gratitude and sadness. "You have to take apart the puzzle, every single piece with your own hands."

Yuugi swallowed. "And…and then?"

"Put all the pieces in the box they came in and put the lid on. Put the box someplace far away, where you won't find it again."

Yuugi was silent.

"I'm sorry."

"When I first put the puzzle together," said Yuugi softly, "I made a wish on it. I wished for a friend, a true friend."

"I know. I heard you."

"And now I'll never see that friend again."

Yami struggled into a sitting position. "Aibou, look around you. I'm not the only friend you found through the puzzle. You have Jounouchi and Honda and Anzu and Bakura. Even Kaiba seems as if he's lightening up a little."

"I know," said Yuugi, clenching his hands and studying the floor. "I'll miss you so bad, though. I need my other half."

"I'll miss you too," admitted Yami, "but I can't change any of this."

Yuugi bowed his head. "I understand. Tomorrow, then."

Day dawned all too soon for both of them. They both sat on Yuugi's bed, the puzzle lying between them. "Don't forget me, okay?" asked Yuugi softly.

"I won't," his other replied. "And you…you gotta promise me to live your life to the fullest. Grow up, get married, be happy. I wish I could stay to see that happen."

"Me too. But I promise."

Yami nodded. "Goodbye then, I suppose."

"Goodbye, Yami." Yuugi slowly reached his hand out for the point of the pyramid at the same time Yami did. For a moment, their fingers both rested on the piece, and then Yuugi pulled it from the puzzle. The piece shivered ever so slightly and changed shape just a little; Yuugi could not have put it back even if he had wanted to. Yami faded a little. Slowly, bit by bit, they dismantled the golden symbol of their bond. As the puzzle came apart, Yami became more transparent; he vanished all together as the last two pieces separated. 

Yuugi grasped the center piece and cupped it for a moment in his hands, his silent tears wetting its cold, dead, metal eye. 

He didn't ask anyone to come with him that afternoon to the ocean side. He wanted to do it himself, to get used to being alone in a way he had forgotten was possible. He took the bus, sitting with his shoulder pressed against the wall just below the window, the Egyptian box in his lap. He walked slowly from the bus stop to the end of a deserted lookout, where only a concrete wall separated him from a sheer drop to the sea. He stood there for a moment, his forehead almost touching the box in his hands. The gulls wheeled above and below him on the wind, the only things breaking the silence.

He let the box drop.

It plunged to the waves, making a small splash when it landed. It glimmered just below the surface and was gone. He watched the place where it had sank, motionless, feeling his heart die. 

Back at home, he locked his door and sat down at his desk. He pulled a framed picture towards him and studied it. He couldn't remember when it had been taken, but someone had been nice enough to snap a shot of his friends in a group. Jounouchi and Honda were grinning and trying to strangle each other at the same time. Anzu winked confidently into the camera, ignoring the scuffle behind her. Seto was trying to pretend he didn't know anyone there, while Mokuba stood beside him watching Jounouchi and Honda's skirmish with great interest. Mai was standing next to Jounouchi, as if trying to decide whether to laugh at him or help him out. Ryou stood towards the edge, looking innocent and not a little clueless. They were all there, with Yami standing in the middle of everything, smiling in his stern and yet gentle way. 

Out of habit, Yuugi's hand moved towards his chest to touch the puzzle that had hung around his neck. The fingers moved through the air until they met his shirt and nothing more. Slowly, he let his hand drop and put his head down on the desk. He closed his eyes, willing everything to be just a bad dream. But nothing had changed when he opened them.

He slid off the chair and pulled a box from under his bed. He sat there in the middle of his floor, pulling out each game in turn. Final Fantasy 7… Mario Party 4… Grandia… Zelda: Link's Awakening… Pokemon Crystal… Starcraft: Brood War… Super Smash Brothers: Melee…

He finally pulled out Tetris and slowly put it into the system. It was fascinating, the way the pieces could fit together to make solid shapes. They acted much like a puzzle, but Yuugi could not get them to fit together like he wanted. The game seemed to rebel beneath his fingers, as if it wanted to remain in frustrating fragments.

R&R


	2. Poem Version

So I'm trying poetry. I'm not that good at rhymes, but I figured it was worth a go. Yuugi's POV, and I hope it's not too hard to understand what's going on. (Narrative poetry is not my strong point either.) Basically, I figured Yami can't stay around forever, but he can't really die, right? So what might happen? And Yu-Gi-Oh will belong to me once Esper Roba gets all the Sennen items. Never.

Note: This is non-yaoi. I understand that all Yamis and Hikaris have bonds, but they are way too blended to be able to go past friendship in my opinion. (This goes for Yume Wo Unison too, as with all my other fics, but I forgot to say it then.)

The Presence of Absence

"Aibou, 

take the puzzle from its chain,

let no two shards together remain.

Seal the pieces all away,

for slumber will keep the eons at bay.

No more is left for me to right,

so hide away the pharaoh's might

until some evil wakes again,

and some pure soul shall find me then.

Once ages go and ages come,

with another I'll be two and one.

For a little while I'll breathe and talk,

then once more into night I'll walk.

Please understand and let me sleep

with farewells in our hearts to keep,"

he said to me, a plea of soul.

So with breaking spirit I let him go.

I watched the box as it fell to the sea

and splashed like the tears inside of me.

I did not weep as the wind blew soft

and gulls cried out as they soared aloft.

But deep within I think I died

rather than as a lonely half abide

and share no longer the joys and strife

(that come to everyone in life)

with another lonely, missing heart.

For now we are too far apart

as my friend in darkness awaits the day

when he will find another to aid.

Light needs dark for balance in me

but that was something he could not see

away he left 'til another time.

I know how it goes, but, Yami, I'm

empty without you for comfort and calm

while all around, the world moves on.

R&R


End file.
